Sleep. Under rated and often over looked when it comes to matters of our health (and our muffintops). Good health is hard to achieve without good sleep, period. Disease, mood, focus, and performance are all directly related to the quality of your sleep, and, believe it or not, your sleep habits can also affect your ability to lose weight.

Snooze you lose…true story. The more you sleep, and the better quality your sleep is, the better your fat burning hormones will cooperate with you. Have you ever noticed it is harder to lose weight when you are not sleeping well? That’s because lack of sleep disrupts hormone balance. In fact, because of this, it can actually make you gain fat around the mid-section. Just one week of short sleep (5hrs) drops testosterone 10-15%…. Oh joy! And wait, there’s more….Lack of sleep also accelerates aging, increases risk of insulin resistance, lowers IQ, stimulates appetite, promotes cravings, compromises immunity, impacts mood, focus, sex drive, and productivity! There, I said it! Now what are we going to do about it?

Healthy sleep habits involve falling asleep naturally, staying asleep, and waking naturally, without an alarm clock. Many people do not sleep well in part due to lack of proper nutrition. Sleep involves a whole system of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters that are fueled by nutrients from the diet, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids. Consuming good quality organic lean animal protein, loads of leafy greens and brightly colored veggies, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, healthy fats from fish and coconut, etc. can help. Other foods that promote healthy sleep are eggs, turkey (rich in tryptophan, an amino acid precursor to melatonin), bananas (good source of magnesium), honey (turns off orexin, a neurotransmitter linked to alertness), oatmeal (rich in melatonin), and chamomile tea (relaxing herb).

There are also certain foods you want to avoid before bed including hard to digest foods such as meat, spicy foods, heavy foods, and foods with caffeine, such as coffee, chocolate, certain teas, and cola. There is a catch 22 with alcohol. While it can help some people fall asleep, the effect it has on blood sugar and the liver often makes people wake up and sleep restlessly.

Other lifestyle tips for sleep include sleeping in a completely dark and quite room, winding down before 10 pm so cortisol doesn’t get elevated and give you a surge of energy, taking supplements such as magnesium, amino acids, and herbs to promote natural relaxation, and reading or writing in a journal to clear your mind before bed.

How is your sleep? Do you require a medication, alcohol, or sleep aid that helps you to sleep? If so, your sleep and perhaps nutrition is compromised and you should start taking steps towards better sleep habits.

My favorite natural product for sleep is called Insomnitol. Check it out here….

(be sure to check with your Dr. first if you are taking any medications)

Share this:

The MTMO Plans (all three of them) begin with a 14 day Liver cleanse. Why? Because you cannot efficiently lose fat and keep it off without a healthy and well-working liver. By cleansing toxins from your body and up-regulating your liver, not only will you feel more energetic, alert, lighter, and less depressed, you will kick-start your fat burning systems making it easier to lose weight during the MTMO 30, 60, or 90 day program.

This is a gentle cleanse designed to cleanse the Liver while supporting fat burning. You eat healthy, whole foods while avoiding dairy, sugar, gluten, corn, soy, coffee, alcohol, and other toxic or processed foods that might burden the liver. You replace two meals per day with shakes that are full of nutrients designed to support the liver and metabolic processes for optimal fat burning. You will receive a complete kit of instructions, food lists, and sample meal and snack ideas, along with the shake and liver supportive supplements. The entire kit only costs $125. (use 10% discount code MTMO10 to get that discount price). I have been leading groups using these products for years because they are by far the best quality and most effective. They are professional-only brand and cannot be purchased in stores, only through practitioners.

We also have a group support page on facebook calledThe Girdle, a different kind of support for your muffintop, which is set up for you to give and receive support, ask questions, and get answers during the cleanse and going forward after the cleanse as well. It’s a great forum for sharing and keeping you on track during the year!

YOU CAN DO THIS CLEANSE ON YOUR OWN ANY TIME! If you have a group of friends who want to do it with you I would be happy to lead by organizing a pre and post conference call for your group. Or, you can use my pre-recorded call which can now be accessed by calling (605) 475-4799. Access Code 578808#. Feel free to listen to it for a review of instructions for the cleanse, although it’s not necessary. The instructions are very easy to follow.

Our community is growing and people look forward to participating in this cleanse several times per year. Please help me in spreading the word about the cleanse and I will reward you with a free phone nutrition coaching session after the cleanse to keep you on the right track.

Refer 3 friends who purchase the kit and you will receive either a FREE 45 minute coaching sessions with me where I will provide you with a 30 day weight loss program to follow after the cleanse, or pre and post cleanse group con calls for your group.

This is the best way to kick start a health program for the new year, and then stay on track by joining our healthy living book club where we read one book a month on healthy living topics. Also stay connected to our support forum, THE GIRDLE, and visit our facebook page where you will see great health tips daily. My goal is to keep you on track for the entire year!

Glad you stopped by! I hope you will join our community cleanse and stick with us for support throughout 2013!

How sexy is that? Ok, well maybe it’s not, but JJ Virgin’s new book, The Virgin Diet, Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days will make you sexier than you have felt in years. So don’t let those two words fool you, this book is a rockin page turner.

Yup, I just finished reading The Virgin Diet by my friend and mentor, JJ Virgin, and let me tell you it is nothing short of a MUST HAVE. I’m serious, you need to own this book. I have known JJ for years. I’ve worked with her, learned from her, and continue to follow her today because she is the real deal when it comes to cutting edge info on fat loss. There is no question in my mind that her new book on food intolerances is going to be a game changer in the vast world of weight loss approaches.

Here’s why The Virgin Diet is so important for you to own…because you eat. There, I said it. If you eat, there is a good chance that some sort of food intolerance is keeping you from losing weight and feeling great. I have personally seen this with hundreds of my own clients who were experiencing fat loss resistance until we removed foods they were intolerant to. And now, JJ Virgin has brought this very important aspect of fat loss to light and she has created a winning program that everyone should follow.

Believe it or not

You are not supposed to feel like crap after you eat! That is actually your body telling you something is wrong with what you ate, and JJ is going to help you to understand what is going on when you eat the wrong foods.

Not only is this book PACKED full of useful information for helping you to understand how your body reacts to certain foods, The Virgin Diet provides a much needed NEW perspective on how you should approach health and weight loss. (Sneak peak: besides removing foods that are making you fat, counting calories is OUT and counting poops is IN! Thank you, JJ!)

Ya’ll have heard me preach how food intolerances are one of the main contributors to muffintop, right? Well, in this book you will learn why many of the foods you are consuming are damaging your health and making you fat, and you will be guided in what I call the 3 “R”‘s – Removing, Replacing, and Rotating foods. JJ teaches you how to change up the foods you are eating, she tells you why they are not good, and what healthy foods to replace them with. She provides an easy program to follow that is life changing.

We all know I am a food geek, and, yes, this book turned me on big time, but YOU are going to love reading it too. I seriously read it in 2 days because I could not put it down.

This is our healthy living book club book for December, just in time for the holidays. And to help you get started right away, JJ has created The Virgin Diet Challenge so you can begin learning about what foods you are sensitive to right away so you can lose that 7 pounds before the holidays AND so you won’t put another 7 pounds on during the holidays! Here is the link for the challenge…

If you haven’t already joined our healthy living book club, you can join here. This is our Muffintop Makeover book club group page and it’s awesome! It’s a great forum for discussing the books we are reading and an opportunity to chat with some of the authors and ask them questions!

Share this:

Geeeeze, ya’ll, I CANNOT believe it is October already! That’s what happens when you move your home and business over the summer! Glad THAT’S over! Just in time to for our fall cleanse, and I need it!!

Many of you have done the 28 day cleanse with me, which is freeking awesome, but, per your request, we now have a 14 day liver cleanse that you can squeeze into your busy fall a little bit easier. How rockin is that?

It is amazing how you feel when you remove toxic foods from your diet, eat clean, and load yourself with liver supportive nutrients to help remove toxins from your body. It’s a GREAT kick start to lasting weight loss or just to help you lose a quick 5-8lbs for the holidays.

Here’s how it works:

You drink a shake in the morning that is loaded with good nutrients. Add clean fruits, veggies, and healthy fats, if you desire. Then, eat a clean lunch of lean protein, fruits and veggies, drink lots of water, herbal teas, broths, and other “clean” liquids, and then have another shake for dinner. You avoid dairy, grains, processed foods, sugars, fried foods, and bad oils. All food lists and directions are provided for you.

** And, when you order the KIT from this site, I will give you FREE guidance during your cleanse! I want to make sure you get great education and results during your journey to health.

A few hints for your cleanse:

*partner with a friend for the suppport and accountability

*Think” paleo” for the diet part. Perfect book to guide you is Practical Paleo.

* Rest and take good care of yourself during the cleanse

* Follow the directions carefully

OK! You got this, my friends. let me know if you need some guidance or have questions.

You are going to feel like a million bucks. Those who have done it once, come back to do it 2-3 times per year as health “maintenance”, which says a lot.

Share this:

Is it me, or is time flying by faster than ever these days? My spring calendar is already packed and we’re still trying to find a way to fit more in! Really?!

Well, now might be a good time to understand the importance of slowing down, and how practicing certain daily repair activities can help us look and feel younger…oh, and help us to get rid of our muffintops!

A good healthy living regime should always involve time to rest and repair from the stress of our daily routines. Yes, there is a physiological response to prolonged stress that can have serious implications on our health, including our hormones, thyroid, blood sugar regulation, digestion, and much much, more. The good news, however, is that you can actually do a great deal to prevent the serious damage that can happen when under prolonged stress, INCLUDING AN INCREASE IN YOU EVER-LOVIN MUFFIN!

Yep, the biochemical response to stress also involves elevating cortisol, a stress hormone that signals fat storage as a protective mechanism when under stress. So if you have more muffin than your wantin and you have a lot of stress, you need to read on….

It’s all about the 3 ‘R’s”: REST, REPLENISH, and REMOVE.

Stress comes in many forms. Poor diet, unhealthy emotions, being overwhelmed with too much on your plate, over exercising, poor sleep, exposure to toxic chemicals, and much more. Fact is, we all have stress, but how you manage the repair from the stress is the key to health living.

Rest – Do you get a minimum of eight solid hours of sleep per night? Do you take time to slow down and rest or nap each day for at least 30 minutes? Do you take days off between high intensity work outs, and limit high intensity work outs with a short duration, bursting type of approach allowing for repair? Do you participate in energy GIVING exercise, such as yoga, tai chi, and meditation? Do you listen to your body when it’s tired and give it extra rest?

Replenish– Do you eat lots of antioxidants and micro-nutrients such as those found in fruits and vegetables? Do you eat lots of healthy fats, such as avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, coconut oil, and organic butter? Do you supplement with high quality B vitamins, Vitamin D, Co Q 10, Vitamin C and Zinc?

Another great supplement to help support repair is Protandim, which is a Nerf 2 activator, meaning it up-regulates our bodies own powerful antioxidants which are more powerful than antioxidants found in fruits such as blue berries. http://www.mylifevantage.com/heathermorgan/default.aspx We burn through loads of vitamins and minerals when we are under stress, therefore we require a good amount to replenish on a daily basis. That is why every calorie you eat counts. Each calorie should be delivering health supportive nutrients to help you build back what you burned through while under stress. That is why we cannot afford to eat empty calories and packaged and processed foods that deliver little or no nutrition. Replenishing electrolytes with coconut water, tropical fruits, and even organic pickle juice can also be helpful.

Remove – Obviously, you want to identify what the stressors in your life are and make a lifestyle plan to minimize them. I have found that this is very useful when I do this with my clients. Often they do not even realize the daily stressors they are experiencing and how it is affecting their health. Once you have identified the stressors in your life and made a plan to minimize them, you are able to manage the stressors you are unable to control much easier.

Eating foods you are intolerant to can also be a stressor on your body. These food sensitivities can lead to weight gain, endocrine disruption and many other health challenges. You can test for food intolerances through this web site. Just shoot me an email at heather@muffintopmakeover to have a test kit mailed to you.

Well, if you take nothing else away from this post, I hope it is the mind-set of REPAIR. That will help keep you looking and feeling younger. You are going to have stress, and you are going to age, but you do have a certain amount of CONTROL over the amount of breakdown that happens to you along the way.

REPAIR, people, REPAIR. Take your antioxidants, eat organic foods from the earth, drink lots of wather from a natural source, and sleep!

Share this:

The timing for our first book could not be more PURRRRFECT, since I am sure you probably just read Fifty Shades of Grey… hee hee, a little hiding in the laundry room while we read did we??

It’s ok, your secret is safe with me. I applaud you. Nothing wrong with a little mommie porn in the form of a steamy novel once in a while, and besides, from a healthy living perspective, it must be of benefit. Exercising the brain, the imagination, and, well…who knows what else. 😉

Yeppers, Dr. Jen did us all a big favor when she cranked out this must have plan to fire up your libido, and the best part is you can go out and buy it and use the excuse that your healthy living book club is reading it.

You’re welcome. 😉

The Sex Drive Solution for Women, Dr. Jennifer Landa

Next up, The New ME Diet.

That’s Metabolic Effect, and it is EFFECTIVE in helping you to understand how hormones play into weight management. These two guys, (brothers) totally speak my language and they even recommend the same nutritional supplement brand that I do, (but they put their own label on it), which was a closer for me. The book, it rocks for many reasons, but the main thing I love about it is the way they explain the metabolism in a way that is easy to understand. Of all the weight loss books out there, this one makes the most sense to me ….

The New ME Diet, Jade and Keoni Teta

It’s going to be a great month, so go get your books and I’ll see you over on our facebook group page to discuss at

Here’s the deal about carnitine and why it should become your new best friend…

L-Carnitine, also known as the Metabolic Support Nutrient, in simplest terms, supports fat metabolism by assisting in the transport of fat (stored fat, dietary fat, and triglycerides) into the mitochondria where it is burned as fuel…yay fuel! We like fuel, because that is energy!

Yep, and it also supports the preservation of lean body mass, especially during anarobic exercise and fat loss, which means it also help you to build and keep muscel. Yay muscles! We like muscles!

It also helps the body tap into fat stores during exercise, more than sugar stores, so your exercise is more effective in burning fat. Go fat burning! We like burning fat!

So how do ya take it? It is most effective when taken on an empty stomach. Do not take too much in the beginning, as I may have a bit of a laxative effect. Best taken first thing in the morning and in between meals. It has an energizing effect, so best to avoid during the evenings.

High pharmaceutical standards of production ensure the highest purity and quality of Carnitine products, and here are my favorites:

Share this:

It’s no big secret I am the biggest sucka on the planet for sweet, creamy, rich chocolatey stuff, and after seeing this on Pinterest, I decided I needed to try to make a healthy version to see if this product can be made-over successfully. So, I promptly set out to learn more about what’s in it and how I might be able to pull off a healthier, yet tasty makeover…

Hazelnuts and chocolate.

I get it.

I so totally get how that could be a winning combo made in chocolate lover’s heaven. BUT….and yes, there is always a “but” with me when it comes to packaged and processed foods, here are the food facts about Nutella that you need to know:

Although they claim to have 50 hazelnuts per jar (which really isn’t that many for a 13 0z jar), in addition to no artificial colors or preservatives, it’s important to realize that this product also has over 50 teaspoons of sugar per jar, artificial flavors (vanillin, or vanillian, as I like to call it :)), and modified palm oil….hmmm, they got rid of the hydrogenated oils and replaced it in an effort not to scare away their consumers who were catching on to the dangers of trans fats. Here is what they say about modified palm oil on their site:

”This palm oil is adjusted to assure the best consistency for easy spreading by reducing the level of saturated fat” (Nutella USA).

Ok, but what they don’t tell you is that when they “modify” the oil to reduce the saturated fat they change the chemical structure of the oil, thus making it unstable and unhealthy for consumption. Actually, Palm Oil, in it’s natural state is good. The modified version, however, is going to go straight to your muffintop.

Here’s another statement from their site that I just had to share….

…When used in moderation with complementary foods, Nutella® can form a part of a balanced breakfast. It can be a quick and easy way to encourage kids to eat whole grains, such as whole wheat toast, English muffins, toaster waffles and bagels. With the unique taste of Nutella®, kids may think they are eating a treat for breakfast while moms are helping to nourish their children with whole grains!….

Really?!

Nourish your children by feeding them Nutella on english muffins, toaster waffles, and bagels?

Bottom line. Nutella is not a healthy product. Period. And feeding your children toaster waffles with Nutella in the moring is not in any way healthy. How about just saying what it is? It’s a crazy delicious, sinfully unhealthy spread made of sugar, bad oils, hazelnuts, cocoa, non-organic milk products, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors. That said, if you love it and want to enjoy it once in a while go for it! Just don’t be led to believe it’s healthy. Consider it one of your guilty pleasures and enjoy every bite of it if that is how you roll….

Or, if you are like me, you will figure out a way to make something equally as satisfying (or almost), using healthier ingredients.

Share this:

Two books by two very RAD chicks who know how to live the good life, and yet, be healthy….and,oh, did I mention be stylish?

Yep, these ladies both rock a healthy lifestyle, yet they bring many cool and different things (pun intended) to the table…. and the best part is, they do it with style and fun, just like we do over here at Muffintop Makeover! We likey!!!

So go out, my muffin friends, and get these books. We’ll be chattin’ em up over at our facebook group page dedicated to this book club at http://www.facebook.com/groups/332028896820837/, so if you haven’t added yourself to that group be sure to do so!

First up:

Paleoista, by Nell Stephenson

You will love learning about the paleo lifestyle, and how it can help you to become one lean, mean, muffin-free machine. Cave women never looked so good!

Next,

The Eat, Drink, and be Gorgeous Project, by Esther Blum

She had me at Martini, and I’ve been a fan ever since. She’s the best friend I’ve never met!

Well, there you have it. May’s picks. I can’t wait to discuss these with you on Facebook!